Union Institute & University doctoral programs play a distinctive role in American higher education. Grounded in humanistic inquiry, they incorporate developing interdisciplinary fields of study in ways that advance your understanding of ethics, the creative process, and the possibilities of institutional and social change.

Union offers a rich academic environment where you can interact with faculty and fellow learners and flexible class times. Doctoral degree programs utilize a distributed learning model which includes the integration of face-to-face and online courses, and monthly meetings with faculty, colleagues, and other professionals.

Each program is rooted in the university’s fundamental commitment to provide interdisciplinary, socially relevant studies in a model that calls for you as a student to critically consider your studies within and beyond the classroom and then act upon that knowledge in the greater community.

Through an emphasis on social justice and the integration of theory and practice, students become agents of positive intellectual and social change. This exploration of the creative process provides you with a foundation for generating new ideas and solutions to the problems you will encounter throughout your professional and civic lives.